Lobbying

Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee staff director Dan Smith will start at The Sheridan Group next month.

The American Beverage Association has hired a lobby firm to guard against legislative proposals limiting what types of groceries can be purchased with food stamps.

Michael Torrey Associates is the first lobby firm hired by the association since the beginning of 2011. The firm registered to lobby for the industry group regarding “matters affecting the preservation of choice in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program [SNAP], including potential changes in the farm bill," disclosure records show.

Members of the beverage association include well-known brands such as Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Red Bull, Kraft Foods, Sunny Delight and Red Bull.

Community pharmacists are pushing back against Grover Norquist for criticizing a piece of their legislative agenda.

A government affairs consulting firm has hired a former Senate GOP health staffer to join the group’s health practice.

Tyler Thompson will start with the Bockorny Group this week. He most recently served Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) as lead Republican health staffer, a position he held beginning in 2005.

“Tyler will be a terrific addition to our health practice. He is one of those rare Hill staffers with the respect of his peers and strong relationships on both sides of the aisle,” chief executive officer of the firm Dave Bockorny said in a statement.

A former senior official at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has re-joined the law and lobby firm Venable as counsel.

Brenda Tranchida previously served as the program compliance and operations group director at CMS. She worked at the agency for 15 years in senior positions, also serving as director of the Employer Policy and Operations Group.

“Brenda’s long focus on Medicare Advantage and prescription drug plans, combined with her deep knowledge of compliance programs, makes her invaluable for clients looking to navigate the complexities of modern healthcare law,” Robert Zinkham, head of the firm’s health practice group, said in a statement.

The healthcare industry is bracing for Round 2 of deficit reduction following the supercommittee's expected failure, Kaiser Health News reports.

In Texas, Gov. Rick Perry is pursuing a "highly technocratic and pragmatic attempt at Medicaid reform that doesn't much resemble the policy he's floated in his presidential run," reports The Washington Post.

New HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths have fallen to the lowest levels since the peak of the epidemic, according to a new report from the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

Kaiser Health News has a helpful decision tree laying out the repercussions of the Supreme Court's possible rulings on the health law.

Pfizer is close to agreeing to pay more than $60 million to resolve U.S. government probes into whether the drug maker paid bribes to win business overseas, The Wall Street Journal reports.

A pharmaceutical company at risk of losing government business has hired former Sen. John Breaux (D-La.) to fight back against federal regulators.

The Department of Health and Human Services notified Forest Laboratories in April that it could bar CEO Howard Solomon from doing business with the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Forest last year paid the government $313 million to settle claims that it had paid kickbacks to doctors who prescribed its antidepressants Lexapro and Celexa.

The notification is part of the government's stepped up effort to punish executives at companies that are believed to have engaged in healthcare fraud.

The American Medical Association hired two outside lobbying firms over the spring recess, part of a crush of new registrations ahead of what are sure to be a frenetic few months as Congress debates the national debt and Medicare reform.

The AMA hired Harlow Government Relations and Loper Consulting to lobby on the healthcare reform law, the Medicare physician pay schedule and medical malpractice reform, records show. The registrations are among several dozen healthcare hires over the past two weeks.

Other hires include:

Cassidy & Associates is adding an experienced Senate staffer to its healthcare team. 

Jennifer Nardi, who most recently worked for Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), is joining Cassidy to work on healthcare and veterans issues, the government-relations firm said in a statement.

Nardi was a healthcare policy adviser to Burr, ranking member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, and has worked at the Food and Drug Administration.

"Jennifer is a great complement and reinforcement to our team. Her in-depth insights and knowledge of the legislative and regulatory process in health care make her a tremendous asset to our clients," Vice Chairman Gregg Hartley said in a statement.

AARP's lobbying expenses are back down to their usual levels after a large spike at the end of last year, according to a review of lobbying records.

The seniors lobby has been in the GOP's crosshairs since it supported the healthcare reform law, but legislative counsel David Certner told The Hill that the spending patterns don't correlate with a recent investigation by House Republicans. Republicans on the Ways and Means Committee have raised concerns about AARP's insurance royalties and have called for an investigation by the IRS.

"Their inquiries to us started in the fall of 2009," Certner said. "So this goes back to the healthcare reform debate."

AARP reported spending $5 million on lobbying in the first three months of this year, a 45 percent drop from the $9.12 million spent during the last quarter of 2010. AARP has been spending between $4 million and $6 million per quarter over the past couple of years, the organization tells The Hill, but last quarter's spike coincided with the election and a major Medicare bill.